§ 54. Mr. Keelingasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what shares were held by his Department before the war, in companies then owning oil refineries in this country.
§ Mr. GaitskellHis Majesty's Government held £11,250,000 ordinary and £1,000 first preference shares, in the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which held a controlling interest in two companies owning refineries in this country.
§ Mr. KeelingBefore saying, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer did, at a Labour meeting on Sunday week, that before the war no oil was refined in this country and that the Labour Government had set up a new industry, should he not have acquainted himself with the fact that oil has been refined in this country on a big scale for at least 25 years?
§ Mr. GaitskellThe hon. Gentleman is right to the extent that I should have said that almost no oil was refined in this country before the war. That does not affect the main point I was making, that this country was investing a great deal in building oil refineries at this time, which would enable some 20 million tons to be refined at the end of 1952.
§ Mr. KeelingThere was refining before the war on a substantial scale.